THE RUNDOWN

JACKSON, Miss. – The Belhaven University softball team split their doubleheader at home against Huntingdon College on Wednesday afternoon in non-conference play. The Blazers dropped game one by a final score of 10-4, but bounced back in game two to shutout the Hawks by a final score of 4-0.

In game one, the Hawks struck first in the top of the second inning off of a bases clearing double to make the score 2-0.

Meghan Luker led off the bottom of the third inning with a single to right field. Marlee Blackwell followed with a double to put runners on second and third. 

Allie Gordon then stepped up to the plate with one out and drilled a three-run shot to give the Blazers the 3-2 lead at the end of the third inning.

In the top of the fourth inning, Huntingdon's bats came alive and scored five runs on five hits to take a 7-3 advantage over the Blazers.

The Hawks scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning to extended their lead to 10-3.

Bailey Root had an RBI-single in the bottom of the seventh, but the Hawks took game one over the Blazers by a final score of 10-4.

Things were different in game two, as the Hawks could not plate a run during the course of the game.

The Blazers opened the scoring when Brister Curry scored off of a sacrifice fly from Brittany Chetta to bring the score to 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning.

Brister Curry scored another run in the bottom of the fourth inning off of a passed ball to give the Blazers a 2-0 advantage over the Hawks.

The score remained the same in the fifth inning, but the Green and Gold tallied two additional runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Meghan Luker scored the first run in the inning off of a throwing error by the third baseman to take the 3-0 lead. Still in the sixth inning, Marissa Rice had a RBI-single to left center to score Brister Curry for the third time in the contest.

BU shut down Huntingdon in the top of the seventh inning with a three up three down inning, as the Blazers went on to shutout the Hawks in game two by a final score of 4-0.

With the win, the Green and Gold moves to 10-13 on the year and the Hawks dropped to 15-9 on the season.

BU Head Coach Kevin Griffin Comments on the Doubleheader Split

"I thought we hit the well today. Kassie Shipley was great in the circle for us today. That was probably her best pitching performance of the season. We did the little things well in game two. Executing two bunts to move runners to third and getting sacrifice flies to score runs were key moments of the game. We have to take advantage of those situations to win games and we did just that."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

In game one, Marlee Blackwell led the Blazers going 3-for-4 from the plate and scored a run in the contest.

Allie Gordon had three RBI off of a homerun. She also scored a run during the game.

Bailey Root tallied the other RBI in the contest and Danielle Darmohray, Brittany Chetta, Meghan Luker, and Brister Curry had the other hits for the Blazers.

In game two, Kassie Shipley was a dominant force in the circle for the Green and Gold as she tossed a complete game shutout and gave up only three hits.

Brister Curry also had a fantastic outing for the Blazers going 3-for-3 from the plate and scored three of the four runs for Belhaven.

Marlee Blackwell had two hits in the game, while Brianna Dollar and Marissa Rice each posted a hit.

In the doubleheader, Brister Curry was a perfect 4-for-4 from the plate and scored half of the runs for the Blazers with both games combined.

UP NEXT

The Blazers will hit the road to Tyler, Texas to take on the University of Texas at Tyler for a three-game series. Game one will begin at 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening.

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